Example Fuel Dump (1X)

I’m not great with Fuel Dumping. It’s an incredibly complicated pursuit, and I’ve only started to scratch the surface. I’m showing an example that I discovered on my own. I’d consider this “unflyable” as you’d have to fly the first flight, or the rest of your itinerary would be cancelled.

Fuel dumping is where you tack on flights to an itinerary, and as a result, the fuel surcharges (YQ) that are attached to the fare are reduced or removed. For example, say you had a $1000 fare, but $100 of that was “base fare” and the other $900 was YQ. Fuel dumping would attempt to eliminate the $900 of YQ.

The most common constructions for a fuel dump are 1X and 3X. A 1X is a flight before the main part of your itinerary that removes the YQ, and a 3X is a flight after the main part. On a 1X, you usually have to fly the first flight or the rest of the itinerary is cancelled. On a 3x, the last flight can be skipped without consequence.

Here’s the example. If I search New York JFK to Dubai DXB on April 28-May 6 on Priceline, I’ll get this:

Now if I use the multi-city search and put in the 1X:

Wow! That’s $610.75 in savings! However, as a 1X, you’d probably have to fly the first segment, or else the Emirates flights would be cancelled (though it’s possible the airlines don’t communicate well and the itinerary remains intact — DON’T DO THIS! You’ll probably get burned!).

I’ve blacked out the 1X flight, to save myself from the wrath of the FD community 😉

Hopefully this visual example will provide some insight to readers on what a fuel dump is.

Yes, agree with above commenters. What’s the point of this article? To show us that you know something, (because some kind person told it to you) that we don’t know & probably will never get to learn or you wanted to interest others “in the know” to share more secrets with you, while keeping your loyal blog readers guessing, admiring you and feeling dumb? Really. No respect & no words other than that you are like a Troll. Sometimes it’s better to keep silence, then to look stupid by posting such pointless articles!

Thank you so much for posting this! Like most of those interested in FD, I’ve read Travel Codex, attempted to weed through the FT forums, and make contacts within the community, to little avail. No one should be expecting a handout with all the answers, but it helps to see a hint now and then when it feels like such a locked and closed community. Yours was one more piece to add to my puzzle, and I’m happy to say that it helped me to get a ticket down to ~$250 on a different route. 🙂